Desert Island Albums (C.M.C. 10th Anniversary Edition)

The World Wide Web has just turned 29 today and Cool Music Central (the Blogger version) is now 10! Being active for almost one-third of the internet’s life on this platform (and actually much longer if you take into consideration that the very first C.M.C. incarnation materialized in 1999, in a now long gone domain) is certainly no mean feat and deserves to be celebrated with a special music list, the kind of which I have never attempted before.

Over the years I have published in Cool Music Central a great number of music lists; you can say that my obsession with list-making is actually one of the main drives for starting this blog in the first place (and this one as well, where you’ll find only lists). All of these lists however are always focused on a particular period of time (the albums of the month, the year, the decade). I have never tried in the past the seemingly impossible task of compiling a list of my all-time favorite records, my desert island album list if you will, and I guess that the time has finally come in this post, our 615th, marking C.M.C.’s 10 year anniversary.

To be able to narrow down the number of albums that make up C.M.C’s Desert Island list to a reasonable Top 50, certain rules had to be put in place:

The first prerequisite to consider an album eligible for inclusion was to have it in physical format, so the starting point for this list was the approximately 3500 albums currently in my record collection. A side effect of this rule is that although there is no specific time limit for the selection, in reality the albums that make up this list are all released between 1976 and today, since my record shopping has always been focused in the period after the punk explosion.

The second rule was to choose only one album from each band or artist for possible inclusion in the Top 50 in order to have a wider variety of voices represented and to avoid making this list another tribute to The Fall and the late, great Mark E. Smith, whose stellar releases could easily occupy about one-fifth of it. With this rule, I was able to narrow down the number of albums that could be in the Top 50 to about 200.

The last rule was to try to have a balance between all the periods represented in this list, although for the punk and indie rock sound that we favor, the years between 1977 and 1988 is the golden period.

With all the above rules in place, our Desert Island Album list has taken the shape of the Top 50 we present today. Of course there are many other albums equally worthy of inclusion, so in order to give a more complete picture of our all-time favorites, you will find below a further 150 selections in chronological order and with the second rule lifted. These are (at least for now) the 200 albums that have created Cool Music Central’s ultimate soundtrack, and the Spotify playlist below is what we are listening to all this week in celebration of our 10th anniversary!

C.M.C.'s Desert Island Top 50

01. Perverted by language - THE FALL (1983)
02. Daydream nation - SONIC YOUTH (1988)
03. Nevermind - NIRVANA (1991)
04. Rid of me - P.J. HARVEY (1993)
05. All mod cons - THE JAM (1978)
06. Entertainment! - GANG OF FOUR (1979)
07. Unknown pleasures - JOY DIVISION (1979)
08. Remain in light - TALKING HEADS (1980)
09. Meat is murder - THE SMITHS (1985)
10. Psychocandy - THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN (1985)
11. Never mind the bollocks here's The Sex Pistols - THE SEX PISTOLS (1977)
12. London calling - THE CLASH (1979)
13. Surfer Rosa - PIXIES (1988)
14. Ramones - RAMONES (1976)
15. Zen arcade - HUSKER DU (1984)
16. Songs about fucking - BIG BLACK (1987)
17. It takes a nation of millions to hold us back - PUBLIC ENEMY (1988)
18. Life’s rich pageant - R.E.M. (1986)
19. From her to eternity - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (1984)
20. Juju - SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES (1981)
21. Live through this - HOLE (1994)
22. Siamese dream - SMASHING PUMPKINS (1993)
23. Bug - DINOSAUR JR. (1988)
24. Meat Puppets II - MEAT PUPPETS (1984)
25. Throwing Muses - THROWING MUSES (1986)
26. Slanted and enchanted - PAVEMENT (1992)
27. Sweet oblivion - SCREAMING TREES (1992)
28. Gentlemen - THE AFGHAN WHIGS (1993)
29. Is this it - THE STROKES (2001)
30. Turn on the bright lights - INTERPOL (2002)
31. Elephant - THE WHITE STRIPES (2003)
32. Songs for the deaf - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (2002)
33. Definitely maybe - OASIS (1994)
34. This Year's Model - ELVIS COSTELLO (1978)
35. XTRMNTR - PRIMAL SCREAM (2000)
36. Sun - CAT POWER (2012)
37. To be kind - SWANS (2014)
38. House of GVSB - GIRLS AGAINST BOYS (1996)
39. The hot rock - SLEATER - KINNEY (1999)
40. The magic city - HELIUM (1997)
41. Bakesale - SEBADOH (1994)
42. Return to cookie mountain - TV ON THE RADIO (2006)
43. Fever to tell - YEAH YEAH YEAHS (2003)
44. Franz Ferdinand - FRANZ FERDINAND (2004)
45. Good news for people who love bad news - MODEST MOUSE (2004)
46. Whatever people say I am, that's what I am not - ARCTIC MONKEYS (2006)
47. Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit - COURTNEY BARNETT (2015)
48. St. Vincent - ST. VINCENT (2014)
49. LCD Soundsystem - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM (2005)
50. High violet - THE NATIONAL (2010)

Further recommended listening:

Pink flag - WIRE (1977)
Marquee moon - TELEVISION (1977)
Suicide - SUICIDE (1978)
The modern dance - PERE UBU (1978)
Real life - MAGAZINE (1978)
Live at the witch trials - THE FALL (1979)
Fear of music - TALKING HEADS (1979)
Setting sons - THE JAM (1979)
Closer - JOY DIVISION (1980)
Sound affects - THE JAM (1980)
Crocodiles - ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (1980)
Kilimanjaro - THE TEARDROP EXPLODES (1980)
Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables - DEAD KENNEDYS (1980)
Los Angeles - X (1980)
Crazy rhythms - THE FEELIES (1980)
Playing with a different sex - THE AU PAIRS (1981)
The flowers of romance - PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED (1981)
The fire of love - THE GUN CLUB (1981)
The gift - THE JAM (1982)
Hex enduction hour - THE FALL (1982)
A kiss in the dreamhouse - SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES (1982)
The days of wine and roses - THE DREAM SYNDICATE (1982)
Pornography - THE CURE (1982)
Fire dances - KILLING JOKE (1983)
Before Hollywood - THE GO-BETWEENS (1983)
Violent Femmes - VIOLENT FEMMES (1983)
Over the edge - WIPERS (1983)
Mommy’s little monster - SOCIAL DISTORTION (1983)
Burning from the inside - BAUHAUS (1983)
Power, corruption and lies - NEW ORDER (1983)
The wonderful and frightening world of... - THE FALL (1984)
The Smiths - THE SMITHS (1984)
Atom drum bop - THE THREE JOHNS (1984)
Native sons - THE LONG RYDERS (1984)
This nation’s saving grace - THE FALL (1985)
Gas, food, lodging - GREEN ON RED (1985)
Valley of rain - GIANT SAND (1985)
Blood and chocolate - ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS (1986)
Bend sinister - THE FALL (1986)
Sister - SONIC YOUTH (1987)
Warehouse: Songs and stories - HUSKER DU (1987)
Document - R.E.M. (1987)
Mirage - MEAT PUPPETS (1987)
Life’s too good - THE SUGARCUBES (1988)
The House of Love - THE HOUSE OF LOVE (1988)
Bummed - HAPPY MONDAYS (1988)
In the Spanish cave - THIN WHITE ROPE (1988)
Green - R.E.M. (1988)
Isn’t anything - MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1988)
My invisible lantern - SCREAMING TREES (1988)
House tornado - THROWING MUSES (1988)
Frenz experiment - THE FALL (1988)
Tender prey - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (1988)
Automatic - THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN (1989)
Monsters - MEAT PUPPETS (1989)
The Stone Roses - THE STONE ROSES (1989)
Doolittle - PIXIES (1989)
Extricate - THE FALL (1990)
Goo - SONIC YOUTH (1990)
Every good boy deserves fudge - MUDHONEY (1991)
Swift-work - THE FALL (1991)
Trompe le monde - THE PIXIES (1991)
Uncle Anesthesia - SCREAMING TREES (1991)
The real Ramona - THROWING MUSES (1991)
Fontanelle - BABES IN TOYLAND (1992)
Dirty - SONIC YOUTH (1992)
Dry - P.J. HARVEY (1992)
Code: Selfish - THE FALL (1992)
Henry’s dream - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (1992)
New west motel - THE WALKABOUTS (1993)
Saturation - URGE OVERKILL (1993)
Independent worm saloon - BUTTHOLE SURFERS (1993)
In utero - NIRVANA (1993)
Too high to die - MEAT PUPPETS (1994)
Let love in - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (1994)
Cruise yourself - GIRLS AGAINST BOYS (1994)
At action park - SHELLAC (1994)
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 chambers) - WU-TANG CLAN (1994)
Deadsexy - SCARCE (1995)
University - THROWING MUSES (1995)
Scream, Dracula, scream - ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT (1995)
No joke! - MEAT PUPPETS (1995)
Mellon collie and the infinite sadness - THE SMASHING PUMPKINS (1995)
My brother the cow - MUDHONEY (1995)
Garbage - GARBAGE (1995)
To bring you my love - P. J. HARVEY (1995)
In the long still night - GALLON DRUNK (1996)
White light white heat white trash - SOCIAL DISTORTION (1996)
Black love - THE AFGHAN WHIGS (1996)
Dust - SCREAMING TREES (1996)
New adventures in hi-fi - R.E.M. (1996)
Too many days without thinking - SWELL (1997)
Brighten the corners - PAVEMENT (1997)
Dig me out - SLEATER-KINNEY (1997)
I can hear the heart beating as one - YO LA TENGO (1997)
Celebrity skin - HOLE (1998)
1965 - THE AFGHAN WHIGS (1998)
Powertrip - MONSTER MAGNET (1998)
Acme - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION (1998)
Keep it like a secret - BUILT TO SPILL (1999)
Stories from the city, stories from the sea - P.J. HARVEY (2000)
The unutterable - THE FALL (2000)
R - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE (2000)
Group sounds - ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT (2001)
White blood cells - THE WHITE STRIPES (2001)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB (2001)
Stephen Malkmus - STEPHEN MALKMUS (2001)
Source tags and codes - AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD (2002)
Yoshimi battles the pink robots - THE FLAMING LIPS (2002)
One beat - SLEATER-KINNEY (2002)
Coral fang - THE DISTILLERS (2003)
Abattoir blues / The lyre of Orpheus - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (2004)
Desperate youth, blood thirsty babes - TV ON THE RADIO (2004)
Funeral - THE ARCADE FIRE (2004)
Silent alarm - BLOC PARTY (2005)
Gimme fiction - SPOON (2005)
Let’s stay friends - LES SAVY FAV (2007)
23 - BLONDE REDHEAD (2007)
Icky thump - THE WHITE STRIPES (2007)
We were dead before the ship even sank - MODEST MOUSE (2007)
Favourite worst nightmare - ARCTIC MONKEYS (2007)
Dig, Lazarus, dig!!! - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (2008)
Antidotes - FOALS (2008)
Dance mother - TELEPATHE (2009)
Exploding head - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS (2009)
Fantasies - METRIC (2009)
Your future our clutter - THE FALL (2010)
I will be - DUM DUM GIRLS (2010)
Let England shake - P.J. HARVEY (2011)
Wild Flag - WILD FLAG (2011)
Only in dreams - DUM DUM GIRLS (2011)
Visions - GRIMES (2012)
Blues funeral - MARK LANEGAN BAND (2012)
Bloom - BEACH HOUSE (2012)
Factory Floor - FACTORY FLOOR (2013)
Shaking the habitual - THE KNIFE (2013)
Silence yourself - SAVAGES (2013)
Indigo meadow - THE BLACK ANGELS (2013)
Manipulator - TY SEGALL (2014)
Nikki nack - TUNE-YARDS (2014)
Warpaint - WARPAINT (2014)
Have you in my wilderness - JULIA HOLTER (2015)
The agent intellect - PROTOMARTYR (2015)
Currents - TAME IMPALA (2015)
Teens of denial - CAR SEAT HEADREST (2016)
My woman - ANGEL OLSEN (2016)
Human performance - PARQUET COURTS (2016)
American dream - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM (2017)
Masseduction - ST. VINCENT (2017)
The underside of power - ALGIERS (2017)

The 7s, part 3: US 1987

Some of our all-time favorite albums were released in years ending in 7. As we are waiting to see what 2017 has in store for us, we have already revisited the great punk rock debuts of 1977 and looked for obscure UK indie gems in Cherry Red's C87 compilation.

For the third installment of this series we are returning to 1987, but this time we are selecting tracks from 5 seminal albums that defined the '80s US alt. rock scene and greatly influenced what was to come in the next few years leading up to the grunge explosion that shook up the mainstream of the early '90s. Here is our US alternative rock Top 5 of 1987:

1. Songs About Fucking - BIG BLACK

Bad Penny

2. Sister - SONIC YOUTH

Schizophrenia

3. Warehouse: Songs and Stories - HÜSKER DÜ

Ice Cold Ice

4. Document - R.E.M.

The One I Love

5. Mirage - MEAT PUPPETS

Liquified

Jams Run Free: The first 100

After almost three years of publicly declaring our love for certain songs on This Is My Jam, picking one favorite track (old or new, but mostly new) each week, we have finally reached the milestone of 100 jams! The first selection, back in December of 2011, was "Nate Will Not Return" from The Fall's latest LP at the time, "Ersatz GB", while the 100th is "Waterfall", one of the standout tracks from the album "Rips", the excellent debut LP by Mary Timony's new band Ex Hex.

 To celebrate the occasion, we have compiled for you a Spotify playlist with 50 of these special jams, containing one song per artist/band and focusing on new music selections. To check out the complete list of all our 100 jams, you can visit our page on This Is My Jam here.

Let the jams run free:

The title of this playlist is, of course, borrowed from this Sonic Youth track (which I should be jamming in the near future):

Sonic Youth - Jams Run Free

5 years on Blogger!

Exactly five years ago Cool Music Central made its debut on Blogger.com with this post. Although C.M.C.’s online presence in one form or another goes all the way back to 1999 (click here for a glimpse of the past - our February 2003 homepage!), I think a little celebration is in order for the occasion.

And what better way to celebrate our blog’s birthday than with the music of the artists that have been featured the most in the 372 posts that we’ve managed since March 6, 2008. At the bottom of the page you can see a cloud of all the labels we have used for our posts. Based on these indisputable facts that reveal our musical infatuations of the past five years, we present you a special playlist with killer tracks from the 12 most blogged about artists and bands in our five year presence on Blogger:

CMC's Cloud Playlist: The first 5 years

1. The Fall (17 posts)

My all-time favorite band, still going strong after 37 years. Album number 30, titled "Re-Mit", will be out in April - expect the post-count to rise even further. By the way, happy birthday to renegade genius Mark E Smith who turned 56 yesterday. Here's "Bury" (the parts 2+4 version) off "Your Future Our Clutter", our 2010 Album of the Year:

The Fall - Bury pts 2+4

2. Dum Dum Girls (16 posts)

If Dum Dum Girls didn't exist, I'd have to invent them myself! The sound, the style, the melodies, the vocals - all the elements of my ideal noise pop group present and correct. "Jail La La" off their debut album "I Will Be" was our 2010 Single of the Year:

 Dum Dum Girls - Jail La La

3. PJ Harvey (14 posts)

"Let England Shake" was the only PJ Harvey album to be released in the past 5 years (not counting the '09 collaboration with John Parish), but not only did it become our Album of the Year for 2011, it also gave us the top single of that year, "The Words That Maketh Murder". Of course, PJ Harvey was also on the top of several other lists we have published here, including Best Album of the '00s for "Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea". As you can understand, this is not a passing fling, this is love...

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder

4. Nick Cave (Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds & Grinderman - 6 & 5 posts)

Another long-term relationship of ours going all the way back to the pre-internet era. In the past 5 years we have covered gigs from both Nick Cave outfits and declared the previous Bad Seeds record "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" as our 2008 Album of the Year. With the recent release of the fine "Push the Sky Away" LP, the number of Nick Cave-related posts has already started to go up.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

5. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (10 posts)

OK, this is more of a fling than the band that I would take home and introduce to the parents. 2011’s "Belong" was a fine record but the main reason for being included in this esteemed company was our infatuation with their near-perfect self-titled debut album from 2009 that took the C-86 indie pop sound and updated it for a new generation.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Young Adult Friction

6. Sonic Youth (9 posts)

I cannot tell if Sonic Youth’s hiatus is permanent or not, but without a doubt this band’s influence on the guitar rock sound will remain eternal. Here’s "Sacred Trickster" off their last studio album, 2009’s "The Eternal":

Sonic Youth - Sacred Trickster

7. A Place To Bury Strangers (8 posts)

One of Sonic Youth’s most talented disciples, true believers of the "plug in and destroy" noise tactics. "To Fix The Gash in Your Head" off their self-titled debut album was the single with which they made their C.M.C. debut.

A Place To Bury Strangers - To Fix The Gash in Your Head

8. Telepathe (8 posts)

Our favorite new band of 2009 that earned Album of the Year with their excellent (and, may I say, criminally underrated in other esteemed publications) debut "Dance Mother". A new, long overdue album is expected this year.

Telepathe - So Fine

9. Anna Calvi (7 posts)

She is one of the most promising new artists to emerge from the UK in recent years and her eponymous debut album was at the top of our 2011 Best Debuts lists.

Anna Calvi - Blackout

10. Mark Lanegan (7 posts)

The magnificent voice of grunge-days favorites Screaming Trees, has been ever-present in recent years thanks to his numerous collaborations. "The Gravedigger's Song", one of our top-rated singles of 2012, is off "Blues Funeral", the record with which Lanegan made his triumphant solo return.

 Mark Lanegan Band - The Gravedigger's Song

11. Cat Power (7 posts)

2012 was the year of the Cat with both Album and Single of the Year going to Chan Marshall. Here's the latter:

Cat Power - Ruin

12. Metric (7 posts)

And finally, with another seven posts dedicated to them, we have Metric who scored Single of the Year in 2009 with "Help I'm Alive" off their awesome fourth album "Fantasies":

Metric - Help I'm Alive

Here's to the next five!

1988: Top 50 Singles

I don't like to dwell on the past too much but if I had to choose my favorite year for music, I'd go with 1988 without much hesitation.

This was the year Sonic Youth gave us "Daydream Nation", their masterpiece and one of the finest guitar rock albums of all time, Pixies left us stunned with their powerful full-length debut "Surfer Rosa", The Sugarcubes came out of Iceland's glaciers with "Life's Too Good", one of the most inventive pop records ever made, The House Of Love took indie-pop to another dimension, Happy Mondays perfected the indie-dance hybrid, My Bloody Valentine revealed their true potential for greatness, Public Enemy made the ultimate hip hop album, Dinosaur Jr. discovered new ways of combining raw power with pop melody and that's only half the story. In fact most records in our Top 20 of 1988 have "Album of the Year" potential while quite a few of that year's releases have played a major role in influencing the music that we listen today.

As you would expect from a year with so many great albums, 1988 also had a considerable wealth of killer singles to choose from. Click here to check out our Top 50 Singles of 1988 topped by Sonic Youth's definitive moment, the magnificent "Teenage Riot", and press play below to listen:

PS.: Did I mention that there were not one but two great Fall albums that year?

Vintage Tracks 2: Death Valley '69

For the second installment of Vintage Tracks, the monthly, almost autobiographical series of posts where we present some of our all-time favorite tracks, we have "Death Valley '69", the 1985 single where Sonic Youth teamed up with Lydia Lunch to create a truly blood-chilling musical experience. It's also the closing track of "Bad Moon Rising", Sonic Youth's third album, and their first song to be accompanied by a video. Hearing this track on the radio was my first introduction to Sonic Youth, one of those rare moments where, after the initial shock, you realize that you've discovered something unique and special. So, although "Bad Moon Rising" is not my favorite Sonic Youth album (that would unsurprisingly be "Daydream Nation"), its final track gets the credit for creating the moment of revelation that made me a life-long fan of the band and it's their first to be inducted in our Vintage Tracks Hall Of Fame:

Sonic Youth with Lydia Lunch - Death Valley '69

The Best Albums Of 2009: Top 30

A Happy New Year to all! We’ll start 2010 in our time-honored tradition of presenting our favorite albums from the year past. During December, with a record-breaking 32 posts in 31 days, we presented our choices for the Best Albums of the Decade and focused on some of the highlights of 2009. We have already presented our Top 50 Tracks of the Year, the 10 Best Debut LPs and yesterday we posted the bottom half of our Top 60 Albums list. Time to finish this marathon by unveiling today, first day of the year and the new decade (!), our 30 favorite albums for 2009.

Our choice for "Album of the Year" is not going to be a surprise for anyone who’s been following this blog. As early as January I’ve been praising Telepathe’s debut "Dance Mother", placing it at the top of our first "Listening Habits" list for the year, ahead of the critic’s darling for 2009, Animal Collective’s "Merriweather Post Pavilion". By July "Dance Mother" was leading our First-half of the Year album selection proving that the spell Telepathe had casted could stand the test of time and by December it was our choice for "Debut of the Year". This is how I tried to explain the unique charms of this extraordinary avant-pop masterpiece in earlier reviews: "The two exceptional singles that Telepathe released in 2008, "Chrome's On It" (their most pop-friendly moment so far, with playfully melodic vocals and unusual, hip-hop influenced beats) and "Devil's Trident" (The Slits meet Kraftwerk in a haunted disco) along with the information that the multi-talented Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio had undertaken production duties for their debut album, made "Dance Mother" one of the most anticipated releases of 2009. Our expectations were completely fulfilled upon listening to the album…Ethereal, dark melodies that draw inspiration from both the trip-hop of Portishead as well as the gothic charm of Cocteau Twins, combine with experimental rhythms, inspired by New York's hip-hop radio stations, and repetitive, trance-inducing, tribal percussion. The electropop sounds of the early '80s intertwine with the feminist DIY punk aesthetics of the late '70s and the result is a unique, truly inventive sound- the sound of 2009!"

The only other album that was able to compete with "Dance Mother" for our "Album of the Year" title was the recently released sophomore effort of A Place To Bury Strangers. The not unreasonably dubbed "loudest band in New York" offered us "Exploding Head", an excellent gift to noise-rock fans everywhere. As I was writing in November "...the band's sound remains rooted in their love for the "Psychocandy" wall-of-noise with its buried pop melodies while paying close attention to Kevin Shields' guitar effects, Sonic Youth's sonic assault, Big Black’s shattering rhythms and the gothic new wave atmospherics of the early '80s… The amazing "To Fix the Gash in Your Head" was the track that showcased what this band was really capable of, and this potential is fully realized this time around resulting in a thrilling noise trip that renews and revitalizes the genre." The mind-blowing live performance that we witnessed here a few weeks later was the confirmation that A Place To Bury Strangers is the most exciting new noise-rock band in existence right now.

Of course, the band that started all this gloriously apocalyptic guitar noise a few decades back could not be absent from our list, especially when it has presented us with its best work for the '00s. Sonic Youth’s "The Eternal" was at the top of our June playlist and the band was also responsible for one of the most thrilling gigs we saw in 2009 with their headlining performance at the Primavera Sound festival in May.

Among the top albums of the year we also have Metric’s self-released fourth LP, the wonderful "Fantasies" (it was our "Album of the Month" in March, while "Help I’m Alive", its first single, topped our Tracks of the Year list), the second Bat For Lashes effort, the pop masterpiece "Two Suns", which was among our favorite releases of April along with Yeah Yeah Yeah's dance-frenzy mayhem of "It’s Blitz!". Animal Collective also gets respect here (although not the Pitchfork-style "We’re not worthy!" acclaim), as does the magnificent, otherworldly Fever Ray debut (read here our initial reaction upon hearing this unique sound for the first time). Our Top 10 is completed with The Dead Weather’s blues-heavy "Horehound", our "Album of the Month" in July, yet another project of the workaholic Jack White (it would be impossible to pair Allison Mosshart’ lung power with White’s mad skills and not have a Top 10 worthy album in my book), and with the euphoric indie-pop of the self-titled debut of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, our second choice in the "Debuts of the Year" list. Here’s the complete Top 30:

Top 30 Albums of 2009

1. Dance mother - TELEPATHE
2. Exploding head - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
3. The eternal - SONIC YOUTH
4. Fantasies - METRIC
5. Two suns - BAT FOR LASHES
6. It's blitz! - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
7. Merriweather Post Pavilion - ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
8. Fever Ray - FEVER RAY
9. Horehound - THE DEAD WEATHER
10. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
11. A brief history of love - THE BIG PINK
12. Get color - HEALTH
13. Only built 4 Cuban linx… pt. II - RAEKWON
14. Embryonic - THE FLAMING LIPS
15. I'm going away - THE FIERY FURNACES
16. Marry me tonight - HTRK
17. Face control - HANDSOME FURS
18. Post-Nothing - JAPANDROIDS
19. Fits - WHITE DENIM
20. Popular songs - YO LA TENGO
21. Futuro - THE LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO
22. Dragonslayer - SUNSET RUBDOWN
23. Six - THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION
24. Farm - DINOSAUR JR.
25. Dim light - GUN OUTFIT
26. Everything goes wrong - VIVIAN GIRLS
27. Rose city - VIVA VOCE
28. XX - THE XX
29. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - FRANZ FERDINAND
30. Humbug - ARCTIC MONKEYS

Our list of the Best Albums of 2009 can also be found here, where it's going to be updated with the albums that I'm sure we are going to discover later on. When it has been finalized, it will also be posted in Cool Music Database, the place for all the lists of our favorite music from the late '70s to the present day (the project is currently at the 1993 list, but I'm going to pick up the pace in 2010 - one of my new year's resolutions).

2009 Highlights: Sonic Youth & A Place To Bury Strangers

Seeing our recently completed list of the Top 25 Albums of the Decade some might rightfully wonder where the heck are the Sonic Youth albums. Fear not, Sonic Youth fan, Cool Music Central has not forgotten the band who took the guitar sound to other dimensions and beyond. It's just that this list is only a first draft and, as we've already explained, it doesn't include any 2009 albums at this moment. And since the best Sonic Youth album of the '00s, in our opinion, was released this year, it just hasn't found its rightful place in the decade's list just yet. You can expect, however, to find the glorious guitar noise of "The Eternal" in a prominent place of our 2009 list, which is currently under construction. Meanwhile, you can check out here what we had to say about the album in June and see below a performance of one of its finest tracks, "What We Know":

Sonic Youth - What We Know

And speaking of glorious guitar noise, here's the video for the brand new A Place To Bury Strangers single "Keep Slipping Away" from the excellent "Exploding Head", another strong contender not only for one of the top positions of our 2009 list, but for a place in the final '00s list as well.

A Place To Bury Strangers - Keep Slipping Away

Links: "Exploding Head" review here, live review of their recent incendiary performance in Athens here.

Counting Down The '00s: The Best Of 2008

Ranting 'n' Raving for the 100th time

And with this post, the 100th since starting this blog in March 2008 (hooray!), we approach the culmination of our little tribute to the best music this decade had to offer.

In the "Counting Down The '00s" series of posts we presented the lists of our 30 favorite albums and singles for each year of the '00s (the noughties, the aughts, the two-thousands, the zeroes...why can't we all agree on a name, this is getting ridiculous!) from 2000 to 2008. In December we are going to present our review of 2009 in a manner similar to last year (check out here the relevant posts from last December) culminating with the unveiling of our favorite albums and singles right at the end of the month. In parallel to all this fun stuff, starting tomorrow we'll start revealing our Top 20 Albums of the Decade one by one. In this little game, organized by the All Gone blog, more than 80 other bloggers from this part of the world will be presenting their own picks for the best albums of the decade and the year. You will be able to see the aggregated results here. As I've written before, the Top 20 that we are going to present now is only the prequel to our final full list that is going to appear in Cool Music Database when the time is right. And the right time, contrary to the current media obsession with the subject, I think should be sometime near the end of next year, after we take the time to better evaluate what this year had to offer. Which, of course, means that by then this Top 20 might be slightly different.

Moving on with the subject at hand, the best of 2008 (a year characterized by an abundance of excellent first-time efforts), you can check out below the updated Top 30 Albums and Singles lists and you can read more about them here.

Top 30 Albums of 2008

1. Dig, Lazarus, dig!!! - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
2. Dear science - TV ON THE RADIO
3. Antidotes - FOALS
4. Neptune - THE DUKE SPIRIT
5. Crystal Castles - CRYSTAL CASTLES
6. Midnight boom - THE KILLS
7. Consolers of the lonely - THE RACONTEURS
8. Saturnalia - THE GUTTER TWINS
9. Third - PORTISHEAD
10. Beat pyramid - THESE NEW PURITANS
11. Oracular spectacular - MGMT
12. A certain feeling - BODIES OF WATER
13. Songs in A&E - SPIRITUALIZED
14. Loyalty to loyalty - COLD WAR KIDS
15. Stay positive - THE HOLD STEADY
16. Box of secrets - BLOOD RED SHOES
17. Vampire Weekend - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
18. Conor Oberst - CONOR OBERST
19. Intimacy - BLOC PARTY
20. Santogold - SANTOGOLD
21. Velocifero - LADYTRON
22. Re-arrange us - MATES OF STATE
23. Imperial wax solvent - THE FALL
24. Beautiful future - PRIMAL SCREAM
25. Saint Dymphna - GANG GANG DANCE
26. Donkey - C.S.S.
27. Partie traumatic - BLACK KIDS
28. The bake sale - THE COOL KIDS
29. Narrow stairs - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
30. Lookout mountain, lookout sea - SILVER JEWS

Top 30 Singles of 2008

1. Idle hands - THE GUTTER TWINS
2. The step and the walk - THE DUKE SPIRIT
3. To fix the gash in your head - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
4. Courtship dating - CRYSTAL CASTLES
5. Machine gun - PORTISHEAD
6. Devil’s trident - TELEPATHE
7. Swords of truth - THESE NEW PURITANS
8. Cheap and cheerful - THE KILLS
9. Paper planes - M.I.A.
10. Time to pretend - MGMT
11. Salute your solution - THE RACONTEURS
12. Dig, Lazarus, dig!!! - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
13. Cassius - FOALS
14. Can't go back - PRIMAL SCREAM
15. Jigsaw falling into place - RADIOHEAD
16. Nothing ever happened - DEERHUNTER
17. Hit the wall - BRENDAN CANNING
18. Rat is dead (Rage) - C.S.S.
19. L.E.S. artistes - SANTOGOLD
20. 88 - THE COOL KIDS
21. Knickerbocker - FUJIYA & MIYAGI
22. Mercury - BLOC PARTY
23. I will possess your heart - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
24. Sequestered in Memphis - THE HOLD STEADY
25. You lie you cheat - SPIRITUALIZED
26. You bring me down - BLOOD RED SHOES
27. A-Punk - VAMPIRE WEEKEND
28. In a cave - TOKYO POLICE CLUB
29. Something is not right with me - COLD WAR KIDS
30. Hang them all - TAPES ‘N TAPES

Tomorrow, December 1st, you can find out our choice for Album Number 20 for the '00s (as well as a hint of what lies below). Meanwhile, here's a video interview of Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo revealing to The Boston Phoenix his Top 3 albums of the decade, as well as his favorite Sonic Youth release for the aughts (a choice that finds me in agreement):

Best Albums Of The '80s

For the past few months I've been posting lists with the best albums from each year of the '80s on Cool Music Database and finally, last week, the process was completed with the 1989 selection. Those lists have been in existence for several years and were first published in the original Cool Music Central site, hosted on Netscape websites between 1999 and 2008.

Instead of posting the lists on the new blog in their original version, I decided that this was a good opportunity to revise them, rethinking the all-important ranking with the benefit of hindsight and adding albums that I've discovered more recently as I searched the net for previously hard to find releases. The result of all this research is more complete and well-informed lists (still 100% subjective, of course), but it also means that it will take several more months until we have all the lists from the '80s to the present day in one place.

To mark the completion of the '80s part of the project (and before we move on to the detailed '90s lists, starting next month), a list with C.M.C.'s 200 favorite albums of the '80s has just been posted on Cool Music Database. You can see the complete list here and you'll be also able to find it on R.Y.M. with easier access to information on the albums and artists. But before you start clicking away, you can scroll down to watch videos related to the Top 3 albums and to check out the tip of the iceberg, our Top 25 Albums of the '80s:

Sonic Youth - Silver Rocket


The Fall - Tempo House (live in Hacienda)


The Pixies - Broken Face (live)

Top 25 Albums of the '80s

1. Daydream nation - SONIC YOUTH
2. Perverted by language - THE FALL
3. Surfer Rosa - PIXIES
4. It takes a nation of millions to hold us back - PUBLIC ENEMY
5. Songs about fucking - BIG BLACK
6. Zen arcade - HUSKER DU
7. Document - R.E.M.
8. Meat is murder - THE SMITHS
9. The gift - THE JAM
10. Remain in light - TALKING HEADS
11. Closer - JOY DIVISION
12. Psychocandy - THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
13. This nation’s saving grace - THE FALL
14. Sister - SONIC YOUTH
15. Fire dances - KILLING JOKE
16. Juju - SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES
17. Blood and chocolate - ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS
18. Life’s too good - THE SUGARCUBES
19. Bug - DINOSAUR JR.
20. Automatic - THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
21. The Smiths - THE SMITHS
22. The days of wine and roses - THE DREAM SYNDICATE
23. Over the edge - WIPERS
24. Violent Femmes - VIOLENT FEMMES
25. Sound affects - THE JAM

The Best of 2009 so far (part 1): The Albums

Lists presenting the best albums of the first half of the year have become as inevitable as a heat wave in July. And since this blog is known for never missing an opportunity to create a "Best of" list (as you may have guessed, we’re big fans of "High Fidelity"), this is exactly what you’re going to get.

The music of the first half of 2009 hasn’t exactly been spectacular, but there are at least 15 albums that meet our excellence standards. Dinosaur Jr., Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand and The Decemberists weren’t able to surpass their previous efforts but their latest albums were strong enough to be included in 2009’s elite. Handsome Furs turned to ’80s electropop for inspiration in their sophomore work with impressive results. Norwegian post-rockers The Low Frequency In Stereo offered their best album to date by using krautrock and noise-pop influences to shape their propulsive sound. Career highlights were also achieved this year by Animal Collective, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Metric. Animal Collective’s years of experimentation have crystallized into a futuristic psychedelic gem, while Yeah Yeah Yeahs continued their shape shifting, this time turning into the queen and kings of indie-disco dance. Metric turned their amps all the way up to 11 for their most rocking effort to date, their best work since their awesome "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" debut from 2003. And talking about rocking efforts, Sonic Youth delivered the goods once again in their first indie album in twenty years, which happens to be their best work of this decade. Natasha Kahn is slowly but surely turning into the brightest star of alternative pop. Her second album under the Bat For Lashes moniker is simply stunning as was her appearance in the recent Primavera Sound festival.

As always, we reserve a special place in our hearts for newcomers and so far this year we had four debuts that are worth writing home about. The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson launched her solo career as Fever Ray with an exceptional album featuring some of the most haunting, otherworldly and addictive electro sounds you are going to hear this or any other year. A description that is also fitting for Telepathe’s first LP, the David Sitek produced "Dance Mother" where Kraftwerk meet TV On The Radio on the dancefloor of a haunted disco with ESG as the house band. And, finally, if you are looking for some feverish guitar sounds, you should definitely check out fresh-faced indie-pop sensations The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and “just-gimme-indie-rock” noiseniks Gun Outfit. The ’80s indie scene obviously played an important role in the upbringing of these talented youngsters, with the C86 British sound and Sarah Records being at the core of the pure hearts of the former and the U.S. underground guitar noise of bands like Dinosaur Jr. or Meat Puppets dominating the record collection of the latter.

The Top 40 albums of the first half of 2009, based on what we’ve been listening to so far and in a not so random order, are the following:

Top 40 Albums

Dance mother - TELEPATHE
It's blitz! - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
The eternal - SONIC YOUTH
Two suns - BAT FOR LASHES
Fantasies - METRIC
Merriweather post pavilion - ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Fever Ray - FEVER RAY
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
Futuro - THE LOW FREQUENCY IN STEREO
Face control - HANDSOME FURS
Dim light - GUN OUTFIT
Farm - DINOSAUR JR.
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - FRANZ FERDINAND
Years of refusal - MORRISSEY
The hazards of love - THE DECEMBERISTS
Radio wars - HOWLING BELLS
Balf quarry - MAGIK MARKERS
Dos - WOODEN SHJIPS
Outer south - CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
Middle cyclone - NEKO CASE
Sometimes I wish we were an eagle - BILL CALLAHAN
Primary colours - THE HORRORS
Now we can see - THE THERMALS
Swoon - SILVERSUN PICKUPS
The spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A.
I feel cream - PEACHES
Petits fours - GRAND DUCHY
A woman a man walked by - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH
Kingdom of rust - DOVES
Further complications - JARVIS COCKER
My maudlin career - CAMERA OBSCURA
Beware - BONNIE PRINCE BILLY
200 million thousand - BLACK LIPS
Art Brut vs. Satan - ART BRUT
Love hate and then there's you - THE VON BONDIES
The century of self - …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
Hush - ASOBI SEKSU
The airing of grievances - TITUS ANDRONICUS
Tentacles - CRYSTAL ANTLERS
Dear John - LONEY DEAR

Our favorite tracks of the past six months will be the subject of our next post. Meanwhile, here's one of the latest additions in our Killer Tracks Hall of Fame, Sonic Youth's "Sacred trickster", the opening track of "The Eternal":

Sonic Youth - Sacred trickster

Listening Habits 05.2009

After blowing us away with a magnificent performance at Primavera Sound '09, Sonic Youth return with one of their best albums in this decade that seems to have a lot in common with their early '90s work. Opening tracks "Sacred trickster" and "Anti-orgasm" seem to hail straight from the "Goo" or "Dirty" recording sessions and set the tone for their first album on an independent label (Matador) in twenty years. The mellower, melodic side of the group's more recent work soon makes an appearance with tracks like "Antenna" or "Walkin blue", but the album's momentum never stops building thanks to the never ending guitar maelstrom that rages at the heart of each song. It's difficult to single out tracks from such a uniformly strong work, but "What we know", "Poison arrow" and the aforementioned "Sacred trickster" seem to be the jewels of this crown.

Other excellent albums released in the last couple of months include the adventurous, romantic rock opera "The hazards of love" by The Decemberists, the Sub Pop compilation of The Vaselines entire '80s, brilliant, indie-pop output, the psychedelic garage-krautrock meltdown of the second Wooden Shjips LP, the latest folk rock epic by the ever-prolific Conor Oberst and his new band and the second collaboration between P.J. Harvey and John Parish that has produced one of the singles of the year, the amazing "Black hearted love". Also notable is the sophomore work of The Horrors who have reinvented their sound with the help of Portishead's Geoff Barrow who handled the production duties and the return of Magik Markers with a weird but very intriguing noise-rock construction.

Top 15 Albums

1. The Eternal - SONIC YOUTH
2. The Hazards Of Love - THE DECEMBERISTS
3. Enter The Vaselines - THE VASELINES
4. Dos - WOODEN SHJIPS
5. Outer South - CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
6. A Woman A Man Walked By - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH
7. Balf Quarry - MAGIK MARKERS
8. Primary Colours - THE HORRORS
9. Now We Can See - THE THERMALS
10. I Feel Cream - PEACHES
11. Kingdom Of Rust - DOVES
12. My Maudlin Career - CAMERA OBSCURA
13. Art Brut vs. Satan - ART BRUT
14. Tentacles - CRYSTAL ANTLERS
15. The Golden Hour - FIREWATER

Top 15 Tracks

1. Black hearted love - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH
2. Pearl’s dream - BAT FOR LASHES
3. You think you’re a man - THE VASELINES
4. What we know - SONIC YOUTH
5. Don't talk in your sleep - MAGIK MARKERS
6. The rake's song - THE DECEMBERISTS
7. French navy - CAMERA OBSCURA
8. Roosevelt room - CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
9. Aquarian time - WOODEN SHJIPS
10. Sea with a sea - THE HORRORS
11. Rainwater cassette exchange - DEERHUNTER
12. Compulsion - DOVES
13. More - PEACHES
14. Mysterious bruises - ART BRUT
15. Now we can see - THE THERMALS

Black hearted love - P.J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH

Primavera Sound ’09: Day Three Review (May 30, 2009)

The third day of the Primavera Sound ’09 festival was the day of Youth & Young - Sonic Youth and Neil Young, that is - who gathered the largest crowd of the three days at the main stage.

We started the day by attending parts of the performances of Chad Vangaalen (he was well suited to this day as there are influences by both Neil Young and Sonic Youth to his electric folk), Shearwater, Jesu and the promising Plants And Animals. But the best performance of the afternoon, in my opinion, was that of the reunited Th’ Faith Healers, the early ’90s cult British band who, in their heyday, went against the grain of fashionable Brit-pop to deliver some of the most inspirational noisy krautrock of that era. Tom Cullinan’s guitar playing remains explosive, while Roxanne Stephen was in fine voice, enjoying herself and even taking some photos of the audience. They played "This time" early on and then proceeded to remind us why we loved them in the first place, with "Reptile smile" being one of my highlights of the entire festival.

Th' Faith Healers live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 30, 2009)

And then it was time for Neil Young at the main stage. As I was informed, Young hadn’t played Barcelona in more than two decades and so, in honor of his return, all other stages of the festival closed down for the duration of most of his performance. Since I had never seen him live before I didn’t particularly mind this decision, although I thought it was a bit unusual not to have any alternative choices. As you can understand, the crowd at the main stage was the largest of the three days and the Godfather of Grunge proceeded with a rocking (in the free world) set including classics like "Hey hey, my my (into the black)", "Cinnamon girl", "Cortez the killer", "Heart of gold". I’ve learned that he closed with a cover of The Beatles "A day in the life" but by that time I was checking out Oneida who had started their set with a long, noisy and repetitive jam. After seeing them play the same track for 15 minutes without changing their tune, I decided it was time for some food and rest.

With energy levels partly replenished, we watched the promising start of the Liars set (who thanked Neil Young for opening for them and Sonic Youth for closing!), but having seen them live twice in the past we decided to proceed to the nearby Rockdelux stage to see Deerhunter for the first time. The rising experimental noise-pop band seemed happy to be playing to such a large crowd, but my feeling was that their sound needed a roof above its head for better results. "Nothing ever happened" was the highlight for me and I guess that with more tracks like this, they could easily find themselves headlining festivals soon enough.

Gang Gang Dance live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 30, 2009)

As the time approached 1:00 am I had to face the most difficult dilemma of the festival. Gang Gang Dance were playing at the ATP stage at the exact same time that Sonic Youth were scheduled to start their set at the main stage. As I had never seen Gang Gang Dance live before, my decision was to catch at least the beginning of their set. A set which started impressively with the tribal drumming of LZA (Liz Bougatsos) laying the foundation for an exquisite mix of oriental melodies and idiosyncratic dance-punk rhythms. As the final notes of the third track (either "House Jam" or "First Communion" - I cannot remember, but feel free to correct me) still lingered in the air, I took the difficult decision to leave for the main stage, where a large crowd was already grooving to the Sonic Youth guitar maelstrom. First track I got to hear was "Sprawl", followed by its "Daydream Nation" companion "’Cross the breeze". Given that, in my book, "Daydream Nation" is simply the best rock album of all time, you can easily understand that I instantly forgot all about my G.G.D. dilemma and I felt the need to apologize to the Youth for even considering being unfaithful to them. What followed was the greatest 70 minutes of Primavera for me, even though it was difficult to get close to the stage where I felt that I should be. The new tracks off "The Eternal", like "Anti-orgasm" or "What we know", held their own against the old favorites like "Bull in the heather", "Tom Violence" (another festival highlight next to the "Daydream Nation" tracks) and the closing "Expressway to yr. skull”. An excellent set, with Mark Ibold from Pavement handling admirably his bass duties.

Sonic Youth live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 30, 2009)

After the guitar apotheosis of Sonic Youth it was time for the beats and the rhymes; the beats of Simian Mobile Disco's set on the Rockdelux stage, which we attended for a while ("It’s the beat" as they say), and then the unstoppable rhymes & rhythms of Def Jux head honcho El-P, one of the best underground hip-hopers of this decade, who blasted tracks off his 2007 LP "I’ll sleep when you’re dead" into the early hours of the morning.

El-P live@Primavera Sound '09 (May 30, 2009)

We left exhausted but thoroughly satisfied, thinking that we should do this all over again some other time.

Video highlights from day three of Primavera Sound '09: Sonic Youth ("Bull in the heather"), Th' Faith Healers ("Reptile Smile") and Gang Gang Dance:

Listen to the mind-blowing Sonic Youth set from Primavera here (the link comes from this thread of the Sonic Youth forum, while you can see the complete set list here).